When His Highness and I learned that Her One and Only had been nominated for a Christy Award, an Autumn trip to Nashville suddenly sounded to us like a great respite from our mom and dad duties getaway.
We flew in this past Tuesday morning and headed downtown.
Later, we enjoyed dinner at Rolf and Daughters. Fyi, I’ve noticed that Nashville restaurants are extraordinarily fond of exposed duct work.
On Wednesday from 1-5, I attended the Art of Writing Conference at Lipscomb University, organized by the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association. On this panel (L to R): editor Beth Adams of Howard Books, editor Shannon Marchese of Waterbrook Multnomah, agent Dan Balow, editor Karen Watson of Tyndale House, author Chris Fabry.
Several of us then changed into fancy dresses in a public restroom, chatting while we fixed our hair and make-up. Conversations while applying make-up are, as a rule, good conversations.
L to R at the reception for finalists: me, Melanie Dickerson, Cynthia Ruchti, Jocelyn Green.
L to R: finalists Liz Johnson and Mesu Andrews.
A selfie with the fantastic Rachel Hauck.
The page featuring the contemporary romance finalists in the gala program. I was really honored to have a book of mine recognized alongside these wonderful novels.
Quotes from the nominated books!
His Highness filmed the announcement of the contemporary romance category, presented by Mesu Andrews.
I was so surprised and thrilled when Her One and Only won.
Every rare once in awhile, a character springs to life, full blown. Not often. Usually, my heroes and heroines are shy. I have to push, pull, and tug them into the light. I have to work to uncover their layers and understand their fears, dreams, personalities, quirks. Dru Porter was in the former group. She sprang to life. She was bold and brave and blunt and it was great fun to walk in her high heeled shoes while writing Her One and Only.
One of the treats of the day was getting to spend time with Inspired by Life’s own Tammy Alexander! She’s awesome. And a repeat Christy Award winner for A Note Yet Unsung! In this photo, our awards seem to be camouflaged by our dresses.
Beth Moore’s novel, The Undoing of Saint Sylvanus, was nominated for a Christy and — to my astonishment — Beth attended the ceremony! She very graciously and patiently chatted with each person who wanted to meet her. (Which was approximately all 200 or so attendees).
A lot of writing days are challenging days. But Wednesday was not one of those days. 🙂 I’ll remember it with a smile for years to come.
I’d like to spread the love, so I’m giving away the two sets of two books that His Highness and I received as party favors at the gala.
The below giveaway is now closed. Big congratulations to Angela Deni and Adrienne! I hope you enjoy Christy and A Baxter Family Christmas.
Becky Wade
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I read Christy many years ago and loved watching the Tv show.
I need some new books. For Christmas. Reading
congrats on the win. that is such an achievement and God letting you know your on the right track 🙂
Congratulations on winning! It is a great book! Looks like you had a wonderful time on your mini vacation 😃. Thanks for the chance to win. I think that is the only Baxter book I haven’t read!
Thanks, Ellen!
Congratulations! I’m so thrilled for you. I’ve read all of your books and agree with the vote. You inspire me as a novice writer.
What a sweet thing to say, Jocelyn! Thank you.
Congratulations, Becky! I always love to see who wins the Christy awards. Would love to win these books for my church library!
Congratulations on winning the award!
Congratulations Becky! Thank you for sharing your photos and thank your husband for filming your big moment!
He didn’t tell me he was planning to film it ahead of time. I’m so glad he did, though, because he was then able to send the video to my parents and sisters so that they could “share” the moment, too. 🙂
Congrats Becky!!So fun for you to win the award! blessings on your writing more books!
Congratulations! I’m so glad you won! Plus what an exciting night to win on the 50th anniversary of Christy. I loved your book & Christy. Glad you had a memorable trip to my hometown. The library in the church downtown on Broadway next to the arena is where I fell in love with your books. Plus the main library downtown has your books too!
“Plus what an exciting night to win on the 50th anniversary of Christy.” It really was! Catherine Marshall’s daughter in law was there and spoke about her mother in law. Lovely!
I’m delighted to hear about the libraries in Nashville that carry my books! My husband and I drove down Broadway just yesterday. 🙂
Congratulations, Becky! What an honor and blessing to win. That and being with all the other wonderful authors had to make for an absolutely perfect weekend.
Congratulations Becky on winning the Christy award for your novel. Thanks for sharing your pictures with all of us. I would like to compliment you on your dress. You looked lovely in it. Happy Thanksgiving.
Thank you, Shirley! Of all the “fancy” dresses I own (and I don’t own many because I mostly live in yoga pants and sweat jackets) that silver one is my very favorite.
It sounds like you had an awesome time! Congratulations on your win! I’d love to win a copy of either book.
Congrats, Becky (and Tamera)! I was excited to see both of your novels first nominated and now won! Well deserved!
I would love a copy of Christy! I’ve seen the movie but somehow never read the book.
Thank you for sharing this amazing experience. Almost as good as being there with you. Congratulations well deserved.
Love reading and finding new authors to read….will be putting your books on my wishlist….
If you have an opportunity to try my books, Julie, I hope you enjoy them!
Oh Becky, I am so thrilled for you….Congratulations! I can’t imagine all the hard work that goes into writing a book, but it paid off! Thank for this great opportunity to be your giveaway winner. I am definitely keeping my fingers crossed!
Congrats on the win Becky! That is awesome
I loved that series and am happy you won the award! Congratulations! Also, I appreciate all the pictures in this article as it gives an interesting look at the people involved and the actual event and locale. I remember, years ago, reading Christy, as my Mom belonged to a “book of the month club”.
Dani, Congratulations on the award. Such an exciting moment in your life. And respites, er, getaways are a great and sometimes needed item in keeping our sanity!p.s., lovely dress!
Omg…would be so honored to win this…one of my favorite books ever!!! Congratulations on your win!
I’m so happy you won! What an honor! And your dress was beautiful, too. 🙂 Congratulations!
Congratulations on the Christy!!! I haven’t had the chance to read your book yet, but I’ll make sure I do in the near future.
Thank you! I hope you enjoy Her One and Only. 🙂
I am so excited for you! What a thrill it must have been when Mesu Andrews started reading that first line from your book!!
And Nashville is a great place for a little get away!
Congratulations!!!!
Yes! I love that they announce the winner of the Christy by reading the book’s first line. It’s a unique and personal way to do it. As soon as I heard, “Dru Angelica Porter” I was like, “EEP! Oh my goodness. That’s my book!!”
A very dear old friend gave Christy to me when it first came out as a gift, and I love it still evn though it is quite worn. It too is a very dear old friend.
I love your books, and you were correct when you mentioned that your writing is a “ministry.” Thank you for being faithful to your calling.
Thank you, Grace.
A loving commentary of your inspiring experience attending the “Bash” in Nashville. I felt as if I was a butterfly on your shoulder. Thank you for all of the fun!
Blessings,
Pam Kay
So thrilled for you, Becky! Thank you so much for sharing glimpses of your experience, too. I almost feel like I was there. 🙂 May God continue to bless your writing for years to come.
May He do the same for you, my friend!
Congratulations, Becky! What an honor and well-deserved!
Congratulations on your win, Becky!! How fun and thanks for the give-away!!
Congratulations on your well deserved award. Thank you for the chance. I had a well worn copy of Christy handed down from my sisters, but it was destroyed by my ex when he poured paint on all my books. God has blessed me with bookshelves my hubby built full of books by wonderful authors like you. Have a blessed and happy day.
Congrats on your Christy Award! I watched and read Christy many years ago, but now I want to read it again because it’s such a great book. Thank you for the chance of winning an awesome prize.
Congratulations, I am so happy for you. What an honor for the 3 of you, and you to win.
A HUGE congratulations to you!!! That is quite an honor to say the least. Thank you formthe giveaway opportunity.
Congratulations are in order! So happy for you! Love the photos and the report about the BIG event! Yay!
I’ll never forget when my mom bought me a paperback version of the book, Christy, for my birthday. I was 12 years old and an avid reader. I thought the book looked huge … had never seen a paperback book so thick! (1969) I started reading it at school during study hall. I could hardly put it down. This story impacted my life greatly. Glad to see it being honored again about the life of such an inspirational woman in American history.
I’m glad to see it being honored again, too! And I’m loving the memories of Christy that you and other readers are sharing here in the comments.
Thanks so much for the post about the Christy awards! It was fun seeing your pictures, and that is so cool that you won! Keep up the good writing.
Congratulations, Becky! Thanks for sharing the event and the books.
Congratulations on winning the Christy! I loved that whole series. What an exciting time for you!
Congratulations on your well-deserved reward!! Love this post!
Congrats Becky!! It is so well deserved. I would have gone all fan girl with Beth Moore myself. Keep up the great work you are doing!! God has given you a wonderful talent. Thanks for using it for His glory.
Thank you for sharing your experiences in Nashville! The pictures made it seem like we were there, and thank you to your husband for capturing your special moment. In honor of Dru’s story winning I reread her early appearances in Undeniably Yours, and remembered how much she had grown throughout the books but she was still her own self. Congratulations! And please keep using this gift of writing that God has given you, and sharing it with us readers!
Thanks, Linda! One of the joys of allowing 8 years of time to pass in the story would of the Porters between book #1 and #4, was that I was able to show the characters change and mature. That was especially true of Dru! She was a teenager in Undeniably Yours. I had a ball introducing her at that age and then “growing her up” over the remaining books.
Congratulations on a great award for an awesome book!
You are so generous to share. Thanks for the chance! <3
Congratulations! Your writing is very deserving of the award! I love your books and always look forward to reading them as soon as they are released!
Thanks, Sarah!
Congratulations. I’m not surprised that you won. Love your books.
CONGRATULATIONS Becky!! You soo deserve it! 💗💗🎉
Congratulations! I keep wondering how your hubby knew to capture the moment? So cool he was there to do that. Thanks for the chance to win the books. Love your books and have read all but the last one.
Pam, I think he wanted to communicate the results to my family members who weren’t there. So he decided to start recording. If I hadn’t won, I guess he was planning to stop recording and delete? 🙂
Congratulations for your very well-deserved win and thanks for sharing the pictures. I always enjoy seeing photos of my favorite authors somewhere besides their book covers and it is so refreshing to witness the joy and comraderie when all of you are with your fellow authors. Thanks for the chance to win these books.
Blessings!
Connie
cps1950(at)gmail(dot)com
The award is totally well deserved-congratulations! Very happy for you.
Dear sweet Becky,
I’m super excited for you!!! Congratulations on this amazing honor. I absolutely love all of your books but Her One and Only is my favorite with True to You in a close second. You deserve this award. Rejoice in it and give GOD the Glory…which I know you already have. 😉
Enjoyed this post and seeing Nashville is always fun. I would love to donate these books to our church library if the raffle goes my way. Thank you for this opportunity and for writing beautiful books📚.
Aww! Thanks, Brooke. It’s great to see you here on the blog. You’ve always been an amazing supporter of my books. I truly appreciate it!
Congratulations! Christy is truly a classic! I love the Baxter Family too!
Congrats on your win Becky ! Love your books, you are on my “gotta read everything she writes” list 🙂
Yay! Thanks, Bonnie.
Congratulations on the award! That’s awesome. It’s neat when a book I have read and enjoyed wins.
I loved Christy. I’m a big Karen Kingsbury fan. Unfortunately, most of my books disappeared due to unforeseen circumstances. Especially heartbroken over losing all my autographed books.
Congratulations! That’s so exciting!
Congratulations, Becky! And thanks for letting us live vicariously through your pictures. It looks like everyone had a great time. I love your books. I still have a couple I need to catch up on. It was such a treat to meet you and chat with you at CFRR this past summer–definitely a highlight of my time there.
I’m so glad that you attended CFRR! Chatting with fellow attendees like you was definitely the highlight of the event for me.
Congratulations! So glad your hubby got to be there with you! Looking forward to reading this book.
Congratulations! It sounds like a fairy tale day. How sweet of you to give away the books that you and your husband received for attending. Thanks for the chance to win a set.
Congratulations ! Super that your hubby got to go with you! It looks like you had a wonderful time! I’ll be looking up your book! Blessings.
Congrats ! Sounds like a great time. The book sounds really good 🙂
Congratulations on your award!! And thank you for sharing your experience in Nashville with us all.
Congratulations on winning! How exciting! I can imagine how thrilling it was to be in the same room with all of your fellow authors. I am sure you are a fan of some of them, too, and I know that you and your husband had a grand time!
Congratulations on the win! So happy for you!
Congrats and God bless! Would love to win!
Congrats on your win you deserve it. Thanks for this generous chance.
Congratulations, Becky! I love your Porter family series!
Congratulations Becky! 😀 What a blessing! 😀
Congratulations and thanks for the giveaway.
Congratulations! I am so grateful your hubby thought to record – loved hearing your heart for this your writing ministry. It is encouraging for all of out there in whatever career or wherever God places us. May we all listen to the Holy Spirit’s prompting each day. Congratulations again!
Yes! May we attempt things (that the Lord calls us to do) that we’ll fail at unless God is in them. Even though that’s scary! When we’re reliant on the Holy Spirit we realize just how sufficient the Holy Spirit is.
Congrats Becky! Love your books! Thank you for the chance.
I love Christy! Thanks for the contest.
I’ve read Christy more times than I can remember. My favorite book.
Congratulations! I love your books. So happy to see your beautiful talent recognized in that way!
Thank you, Tonya!
Congratulations Becky on your award! I love your books, and your blog! Thanks for offering us the chance to win!
Congratulations on winning!!!
Congratulations! What an honor to read this post about your well deserved award. I so love the comments you all make each day about your books and lives.
So happy for you and Tamera, too. And how fun to meet Beth Moore! I’m doing one of her Bible studies right now and would love to meet her one day. Congrats again and thanks for sharing. I wanted to attend the conference, but just couldn’t swing it.
Thanks, Julie!
Congratulations! So excited for you.
Becky B.
I’m so excited about your Christy Award! Congratulations!
Thank you for sharing the lovely memories and photos from the Christy awards. Congratulations on your win! 🙂
Congratulations! What an awesome getaway! Thanks for sharing with us through the pictures and video.
I have read several of your books ans enjoyed them. Now I want to read your Christy award winning book. Congratulations! Christy was one of the first Christian books I read and I haven’t read A Baxter Family Christmas. I would love to win them.
Congratulations! What a nice giveaway idea, it’s like you’re sharing your joy from the awards evening.
Congratulations! Love the story of Christy.
Congratulations. God blesses us in so many unexpected ways.
How great to be able to win these books. Appreciate your generosity in giving back to your fans. Blessing others will double back to you.
I’m an avid Christian book reader. I’m bed bound, so I get to travel, learn new things, get encouraged on this walk we are to go, & helps keep my mind off pain.
Once again, thank you for this great opportunity.
Congratulations on the award. Sounds like you had a lovely experience at the event in Nashville.
Appreciate my favorite authors and their gift of writing so very much! Thank you for the chance to win🙂
Congratulations on winning the Christy Award!!!
Congratulations on your award. God has truly blessed you with the gift of writing. I’m very excited for the release of your new book.
Thank you for the give away. I’m a fourth grade teacher and love reading. These books will be great to read on over our upcoming Thanksgiving Break. I don’t get to read much during regular school weeks, so I make up for it on holidays.
Congratulations again!
Congratulations on your win! I loved Christy, both the book and the TV show. Haven’t read the other one. Thanks for the chance! 📖🍁🍂
I have never read any of your books but this would be a great way to get to know you. Congrats on winning the award!!
Congratulations! Thank you for the giveaway as well!
Such an exciting trip! So happy for you and all the Christy nominees and winners.
I would love to read them congratulations
Congratulations on your award!! Thank you for the giveaway!!
Congrats! Loved this book (as well as ALL your books)!! What a special evening!! Thanks for the giveaway!!!
I was so excited for you and Tamera Alexander to win! I also recently read The Lady and the Lionhart”. So deserving of a win, as well. So it was a good night for my favorites 🙂 Maybe, just maybe, that luck will continue with me winning your giveaway. Lol. Thanks for the opportunity.
Wow! How exciting! Congratulations on the awards! I wish I could have met Beth Moore too.
Thank you for the giveaway!
I would Love to win this Giveaway.
The 50th Anniversary of Christy would be a Treasure & a Keepsake.
I have the Christy paperback with Kelly Martin on the cover.
Karen Kingsbury’s book would be a wonderful early Christmas/Birthday (12/20) gift to me!
Such a thoughtful and fun giveaway and congratulations! Thanks for the opportunity to win!
Congratulations! I’m so thrilled for you. I can’t wait to read your book. You looked amazing in your silver dress. What a amazing experience with the ECPA conference. I love Christian fiction!! Keep up the good work and we love your gifts and talent! Thank you for your generous offer with the book giveaways! Keep Writing!!
Congrats, Miss. Becky!!! Her one and only was such an amazing book that left me on the edge of my seat waiting for what happened after I turned the next page. May God bless you and your writing!
Congrats! A well deserved win for a fantastic read!!!